Challenges

In keeping with our mission of supporting individuals to reduce their carbon footprint, we have created a number of challenges in which anyone can participate. Our goal is to create a supportive and informative environment to encourage people to have a go at trying something new.

The eating well on a budget challenge has local participants spending no more on food per week than the average UK student; a mere £21 each! Once again encouraging the awareness and consumption of locally produced foods, this challenge aims to demonstrate that with a little planning, a splash of patience and a lot of inventiveness even people on a budget can eat like eco-friendly kings...

On the surface, the concept of eating strictly local foods might not appear too challenging; after all, so many villages and cities have regular farmers' markets. But how easy is it to create the foods you love to eat when some of the main ingredients might not even grow in the UK, let alone East Anglia? This challenge encourages participants to be aware of what grows locally, where to buy it and how to cook it, as well as connect with fellow challengers and bloggers.

The vegan challenge might sound rather extreme, but never fear; the intention is for people to simply consider what a huge carbon footprint livestock farming has, and the strain it puts on natural resources. By the end of the challenge we hope you will have a stronger appreciation for the different reasons someone might choose a vegan diet, what being vegan actually entails...and most of all, discover some fantastic recipes along the way. Be sure to also have a look at our Vegan Resource page.

Created as a follow-on event after our Food for a Greener Future Conference in February 2014, this challenge was our spin on the popular 5:2 Diet. Unlike past challenges, participants were asked to eat vegan or vegetarian for only two days a week for 40 days.

Could you live for a year without buying anything new? No new clothes, gifts, electrical goods, household items? Well this is exactly what our brave participants faced when they began the Living Well With Less Stuff challenge in early 2012. The point of this challenge is to demonstrate how your quality of life does not have to change if you choose to reduce your consumption and waste output. In fact, many of our participants discovered a new level of appreciation for what they have and invented ingenious ways of prolonging the life of everything they own.

The WWII Rationing Food Challenge explored the common ground between a diet from the forties/fifties and eating sustainably today. A rather surprising outcome of rationing in Britain was that despite the queues, shortages and lack of variety, people were healthier during the war years than they are today. They consumed less meat and dairy products and fewer processed and out of season foods. The challenge offered a window of opportunity to try returning to a diet largely based on seasonal fruit and veg, grains and pulses, with rationed amounts of staples such as cheese, sugar, eggs and meat. Very little was wasted during the war years, so there were also tips for making the most of every bit of food.